Delaware, USA, DuPont Gunpowder Company.

Henry Dupont, the third-generation leader of the DuPont Gunpowder Company, was sitting in his office at the moment, and in front of him were his brother Samuel DuPont and nephew Lamotte Dupont, as well as his close henchman Élutado Irre Dupont.

Since 15 years ago, Henry DuPont took over the position of president of DuPont from the second generation of DuPont's leader, that is, his brother and nephew Lamotte DuPont's father, Victor DuPont, to now, because he has a talent for profit, good at employing people, and capturing investment opportunities, so that the original DuPont company has grown rapidly, and his wealth has increased dramatically, and he has become a highly prestigious strongman in the DuPont family.

Of course, this is not entirely because of his business talents, in fact, even in the United States of America, a country that claims to be the fairest country in the world, he would not have been able to operate DuPont to such an extent in a short period of time without political factors.

Not only did his brother Victor DuPont once serve as a senator, but his own political status was also hot.

At that time, President Lincoln, who had just taken office and had not been assassinated not long ago, specially asked Delaware Governor Burton to appoint him as Major General of the Armed Forces of Delaware, which made the already economically powerful DuPont family unprecedentedly powerful and took advantage of this opportunity to control most of Delaware.

Because of his political and commercial advantages, coupled with Henry's strict control over the quality of DuPont Gunpowder's gunpowder, his constant development of new products to meet the needs of new weapons and equipment, and the secret help of the American government, Henry led the members of DuPont to use various means to crush and annex small and medium-sized gunpowder factories in northern America, monopolize the gunpowder industry, and become a veritable arms kingdom in the United States.

In particular, the recent Civil War made DuPont's business even more busy. Unfortunately, the war did not last forever, and soon the north and south made peace with the Hexi kingdom controlled by the Chinese Empire, which was invaded by foreign enemies, which made DuPont very depressed. But even so, DuPont has made a lot of war money, and the company's strength has increased a lot.

DuPont's annual gunpowder sales increased from about $750,000 before the Civil War to $2.8 million in the first year after the war, and even to $7.8 million in the following year after the Three Kingdoms. And the annual profit has also soared from $200,000 before the outbreak of the war, in the first year of the Civil War alone, it earned $1.6 million, and in the second year, DuPont's profit reached a staggering $5.67 million, which alone is the sum of the accumulated profits of the previous decades!

Unfortunately, the war ended. That powerful Chinese empire actually forced the American governments of both the north and the south to submit to peace, and even preferred to cede the land and surrender peace, rather than go to war with the Chinese empire again! This made Henry Dupont extremely angry! But at the same time, he was very helpless! After the assassination of President Lincoln, he lost his powerful political support, and although he still had many of his allies in the federal government, he could no longer play a decisive role. And he tried to point the culprit behind the assassination of President Lincoln at the Chinese Empire, but the soft eggs in Congress did not dare to deal with the powerful empire in the East, let alone declare war.

As a result, his DuPont Gunpowder business plummeted, and although it did not return to its pre-war state, it had less than $900,000 in sales and only about $250,000 in profits for the past two years. How can he, who once made a profit of more than $5.6 million a year, endure it?

Fortunately, due to the Uruguayan Civil War in South America last year and the Paraguayan War that caused a sensation in the Americas and even the Western world not long this year, the demand for gunpowder was strong, and DuPont's orders began to increase significantly. But in any case, compared to the amount of gunpowder required for a war directly on American soil, it was still too big for him to accept.

But even so, there was bad news, and this bad news made Henry DuPont panic.

"Irex, how's it going? The gunpowder company called Erma has a detailed background, have you figured it out? Henry DuPont asked, undecided.

"The head of the family, the subordinates are incompetent, and they don't get more results! It is only known that this Erma Gunpowder Company is very powerful, with as many as 2,000 employees and abundant capital, and in less than two months after its establishment, it directly established a large-scale gunpowder factory in San Francisco, California, and New Orleans, St. Louis Anna, with a total investment of more than $30 million. The news of Élutado Irè DuPont made the people present fall into a dead silence: "And, the most terrible thing is that the Four-Power War in South America, our main overseas customers of DuPont are Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, and it is rumored that their Paraguay seems to be interested in buying gunpowder from this newly established Gunpowder Company. And this Paraguay should have been our largest overseas customer of DuPont, with an annual purchase of 400,000 pounds of gunpowder and $240,000. ”

Samuel Dupont looked horrified: "Oh my God! What is the origin of this two-horse gunpowder company? More than 2,000 employees and an investment of $30 million? This, what kind of Big Mac is this? Oh my God, we at DuPont are more than 60 years old, and our total assets are less than $14 million. They've just been established, and they haven't even started production yet, right?

When they start production, what will we do with DuPont? ”

Henry Dupont shouted: "Panic what!? How is this possible! Ire, where did you get the news, it must be all fake! When in the world did there ever be such a huge gunpowder company? Who else but DuPont might have the courage to invest in gunpowder and build a factory on such a scale?

Moreover, Paraguay is under siege by those three countries and is almost in a desperate situation, how can they, who are in dire need of gunpowder supplies, abandon us and order a new gunpowder company whose factories have not yet been established? Besides, how can Paraguay, which purchases 400,000 pounds of black powder a year, provide this second-horse company that has not yet been put into production? This is fake news, ridiculous! ”

Élutedo Ire Dupont said: "The head of the family, it is the fault of the subordinates, it must be the subordinates who have heard false news!" The subordinates also thought that it was unlikely, it was impossible to establish such a large-scale gunpowder factory in two or three months, and still wanted to put it into production and ship, which was indeed impossible. ”

However, as soon as he finished speaking, a telegram was sent from DuPont's office in New Orleans, and Irey was stunned and unable to utter a word when he saw the contents of the telegram.

Lamotte Dupont next to him saw that Ire's face was not right, and when he took the telegram, his face changed greatly, and his voice trembled a little: "My lord, New Orleans has confirmed that Paraguay has canceled the contract for 400,000 pounds of black powder for $240,000 purchased from our DuPont company, and would rather pay $20,000 in liquidated damages." Instead, they purchased 300,000 pounds of black powder and 50,000 pounds of new gunpowder from the Erma Gunpowder Company for just $200,000. ”

"What!? Paraguay canceled our DuPont $240,000 contract for the purchase of black powder? Henry Dupont looked incredulous. He never expected that the impossible thing he had just said would be confirmed so quickly. So, this Erma Gunpowder Company, in such a short period of time, has been almost built? Moreover, the price is cheaper than its own, and what new gunpowder is there. Moreover, judging from the reaction of the Paraguayan side, it seems that 50,000 pounds of new gunpowder can replace 100,000 tons of black powder.

Henry DuPont gasped, he knew that DuPont Gunpowder was in big trouble!